What's actually the reason to live with cats? First, they do some good jobs. They keep the house clean of many other, smaller animals like mice and rats, also many insects. In southern countries they care hunt snakes, spiders, cockroaches, scorpions and lizards.
A Siamese Cat
Asienreisender - Siamese Cat
A 'noble' cat, a 'Siamese'. Remarkable are the bright, blue eyes. That's why the Thai's call them sometimes 'maeow farang'; 'maeow' means cat, 'farang' stands for Westerner.
This cat was abandoned and I found it on a hike around Vang Vieng in Laos, took it with me and it got a new home at Jammee Guesthouse, where I stayed. Some months later, when I came along there again, I was told that Thai guests from Bangkok took it with them. They hijacked the beautiful cat.
Image by Asienreisender, 2010
Second, they are great companions. One can have much fun with them and it's generally a good thing particularly for children to live together with animals; therefore cats are a great choise.
In southern countries housecats don't grow that big as in northern, cooler countries. Living among humans and getting some care, cats have a life expectancy of twelve to fifteen years; in exceptions they can reach up to 25 years. Straying around themselves without a human based home male cats reach an average age of around two years, females around three and a half.
Cats have very good ears, better than dogs or humans. When I was a boy I heard many people claim, cats were loners. Housecats are, on the contrary, in difference to the most kinds of wildcats very sociable and like to live together in smaller or bigger groups. They communicate among each other with sounds, gestics and smells. In communication with humans they use certain sounds they don't use in communication amongst each other, or generally in wildlife. Housecats adapted some 100 noises they learned over the times living with humans. Wild cats avoid being noisy for not attracting enemies (e.g. birds of prey).
Although cats are excellent swimmers, they avoid the contact with water. However, I find it a good idea to wash the cat's I am living with from time to time - particularly when they get smelly. The process of washing must be a real kind of torture for them, and some start crying then as they would be butchered. However, washing Hotzenplotz (see below left) was one day interestingly observed by his very friend, Etzel, another tomcat. While Hotzenplotz was screaming like crazy, Etzel apparently felt he had to help his friend and did so. Suddenly he attacked me and bit me into my knee so that I was bleeding. A surprising example of altruism and solidarity among cats.
